The Call to Action
Almost a year and a half ago, the area we live in was hit hard by a series of tornadoes. The dangerous weather, and the warnings from the weather stations, started mid-morning and continued throughout the day. The small city where we live was reported throughout the day to be directly in the path of the dangerous weather conditions—and even of reported tornadoes.
My family of five spent most of the day packed into a small closet under the stairs, wondering what the day would bring. Our family has a great deal of experience with these things, having lived in tornado prone areas of Colorado, Illinois, and Alabama, but with that experience comes both a certain comfort as well as the knowledge that you never know how it will turn out.
When the day was done, every single tornado that touched down went to the west or the east, but they all missed us. Others were not so lucky.
As the danger finally passed, during the late evening, we were left without power. The phones weren’t working and cell phones weren’t working. We found one of our children’s radios and this became our lifeline to information about what had happened. Later that night, my daughter and I climbed into one of our cars and went to check on friends to make sure they were OK.
During the evening and over the weekend, it became clear that we were going to be without power for days or even possibly weeks and that many of our neighbors in surrounding communities were decimated, dealing with unimaginable tragedy. We were in shock. This kind of thing only ever happened to other people in other cities, in other states, or in other countries.
That Sunday we were still adjusting to this reality when a friend of mine called me and said he was going to go out and help those around us, would I like to go with him?
Of course! I should have thought of that myself!
I got dressed in a pair of thick jeans, a thick long sleeved shirt, and grabbed my leather gloves from the garage. My friend picked me up and we spent the rest of the day with tens of thousands of others helping people pick through the ruin of their homes to see if there was anything they could salvage, or to remove fallen trees and such from their homes or their yards. We did this more than once.
What made the difference between sitting at home, dazed and overwhelmed by what had happened to me and to my neighbors vs. actually going out and doing something to help? It was a call to action!
If you have a marketing campaign, sometimes it’s nice just to build your brand. Get people to know about you. But eventually, you need to have a call to action. You can’t just assume that everyone will see how awesome you are and know what they need to do to take advantage of your awesomeness. You need to tell them why they should do business with you and then tell them how.
And then make sure it’s easy to accomplish the call to action.
Give them a clear, compelling call to action.
